Mary had brushed off her mother’s warning about the shortcut through the woods. Footsteps crunched in the snow behind her. She had been stalked.

He grabbed her by the arm. “Gotcha! I’ll give you a head start, little girl. Ready? GO!”

She bolted from the shabbily dressed man. Rounding the corner of the old mill, its blades dashed through the frigid water in the cold evening air. Then she passed a stand of evergreens. Snow covered needles fell in her wake. She slid down the embankment onto the ice-covered lake. After reaching the middle, she stopped to catch her breath. He closed the gap behind her.

96 thoughts on “Ice Sculptured – 200 Word Flash Fiction”

Great story Susie! I can’t seem to frame this one, though. I picture Mary on the ice with her grandfather, I also picture her on the ice with a serial killer! Perhaps you explained it somewhere in the comments section, but I purposely avoided it in the event that you did. I thrive on ambiguity! 🙂

It is sometimes hard to project the tone. I thought that mentioning “little girl” in a derogatory way would set it up as well as “his icy fingers around her slender neck”…Are you avoiding horror today John?? Not me. I dive right in! 🙂 Thanks and have a splendid weekend in the Colorado sunshine!

She was! But I think she may have thought there may be a chance that he wouldn’t make it across the lake. When I was growing up, the lakes we skated on were spring fed and every winter someone broke through….
Thanks Rochelle!

Smart girl. She listened to her intuition/instincts/small voice inside of her … warning her this was a dangerous man. During grammar school, taking a short cut home, I fell through some ice, waste deep. School mates saved me. I get reminded at every school reunion.

That must have been so scary! How ironic is my story. Waste deep without sure footing could have been fatal. Thank God you had friends with you!
Sounds like a story to blog about sometime…
Thanks Lora!

Thanks so much Ellie!
I didn’t know either until the end! I had always thought about the horror of what it would be like to break through the ice and see those above while the current sweeps you away….a pretty terrible way to die.